Let the rope go up

The current crop of learners at St Mary’s in Edinburgh tend to resist the rope on its way up. Telling them to let the rope go up so often has prompted me to ask myself whether *I* am letting the rope go up as much as it can.

It turns out, if I simply move my hands up a tiny bit earlier, for both handstroke and backstroke, the rope will go up a tiny bit more and/or a tiny bit slower because I’m not supplying as much resistance. Then I can make my pulls a bit gentler still so that the bell and rope will come back down in time.

Alan Ellis in Vancouver used to tell our learners, “don’t push the rope!” Literally pushing a bell rope won’t do any good! But if you’ve gotten used to pulling a bit even as the rope goes up in order to maintain tension, trying to reduce that tension might feel like pushing the rope up. Letting the rope go up with as little tension as possible is really important for ringing efficiently. And ringing efficiently is important for ringing peals, ringing heavy bells, or just ringing without tiring yourself out!

So I would encourage all ringers to ask themselves: am I letting the rope go up? or am I making the rope drag my hands up? what happens if I let my hands go up just a tiny bit earlier? It might feel weird, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong!